1928: Guy Goff v Al Smith

[mianfei]

Given Al Smith’s problems in the “Solid South” had been known before it was certain he would be nominated because no other Democrat wanted to run in the contemporary political climate, I have wondered what would have been the result if the Republican Party had nominated border state West Virginia senator Guy Goff as their 1928 Presidential candidate. Goff – who remarkably had the same home county as 1924 Democratic nominee John W. Davis (Harrison County, West Virginia) – was considered a possibility in early running, but dropped out. Health meant Goff resigned from the Senate in 1930, and he died in early 1933.

What if Goff had received the Republican nomination for 1928??

Would Goff have chosen a running mate designed to counter Smith in the urban, Catholic Northeast (I have imagined Walter Evans Edge of New Jersey as a possibility)?

Would Goff, being from a border state, have been more successful than Hoover at splitting the “Solid South” (winning Alabama and maybe Arkansas, getting closer in Georgia)?

Would Goff have suffered more losses in the Northeast (New York, maybe Connecticut as well as Massachusetts and Rhode Island)?

Would Goff have been more able to prevent intrusion into business and thus prevent the Great Depression from becoming “Great”?

What if President Goff became so ill he had to resign mid-term?